ETIH Innovation Awards: EdTech Company of the Year (Global) shortlist signals scale across markets
International platforms show how edtech companies are expanding across regions while maintaining measurable outcomes and adoption.
The ETIH Innovation Awards 2026 category spotlight series continues with EdTech Company of the Year (Global), following more than 140 entries submitted across this year’s awards and reflecting the scale of activity across international markets.
This category recognizes edtech companies delivering impact across multiple countries and education systems, with winners set to be announced on May 11.
Where global expansion must deliver consistent outcomes
This category focuses on how companies operate across different education systems rather than a single national context. Submissions include platforms supporting K-12, higher education, and workforce learning, often adapting to varied curricula, infrastructure, and institutional needs.
Judges are assessing whether international growth is supported by consistent delivery. This includes how effectively platforms localize their approach, integrate into existing systems, and maintain usability across different environments.
There is also a clear focus on evidence. Strong entries demonstrate measurable improvements in learning, access, or efficiency across multiple markets. At the same time, scale is expected to be practical, with solutions remaining usable for educators and institutions without introducing additional complexity.
Finalists
2U is a global education technology company that partners with leading universities and organizations to deliver high-quality online education at scale. Through its learning platform, edX, the company works with more than 250 institutional partners and has reached over 100 million people worldwide. Over the past year, 2U has expanded innovation across its portfolio, including the introduction of AI-powered learning support tools and new instructional models developed with university partners. By combining global reach, academic rigor and responsible technology deployment, 2U continues to help institutions extend access to flexible career-relevant education for learners across industries and geographies.
Efekta is an education technology company that launched the world's largest AI learning deployment, delivering hundreds of millions of lessons to millions of students across Latin America.
Efekta has developed the world's most advanced agentic learning platform for public and private school systems, universities and global companies, championing teachers and supporting students and school operators alike, delivering improved learning outcomes at scale with the mission to make high-quality education universally available.
Efekta has taught over 24 million people and is currently used by more than four million active students, 25,000 teachers, 3,000 corporate clients, and several governments worldwide.
Ellucian Student is higher ed’s complete solution that powers the end-to-end student lifecycle. Built on a unified, SaaS-native platform with embedded AI, it connects admissions, financial aid, academics, student success, HR, and finance into one intelligent ecosystem. Purpose-built for higher education’s complexity, Ellucian Student transforms fragmented systems into coordinated, data-driven action. AI-powered capabilities, such as predictive retention models, smart academic planning, scholarship matching, credit recognition, and intelligent automation, proactively support students while reducing administrative burden. Across Ellucian’s AI-embedded platform, these capabilities have reached 10M+ unique users and enabled 2.23M+ workflow runs, helping institutions improve outcomes, efficiency, and long-term sustainability.
Find Your Grind is an award-winning EdTech company transforming career exploration for 500,000+ students across 250+ school districts in all 50 U.S. states. The company's lifestyle-first platform, featuring 400+ career profiles, 350+ mentor stories from icons like Tony Hawk and Will.I.AM, an AI-powered Reflective Coach, and ESSA Tier 2 validated outcomes, has redefined how schools prepare students for the future. Founded by musician-turned-entrepreneur Nick Gross, Find Your Grind closed a $5M Series A in November 2025 and was named District Administration's Top EdTech Product of the Year.
Google Research (AI Quests, with Stanford Accelerator for Learning)
AI Quests is a game-based learning experience developed by Google Research and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. Designed for middle schoolers (ages 11–14), it transforms complex AI concepts into interactive, code-free quests inspired by real-world research, from predicting floods to mapping the human brain. This initiative promotes active learning, equipping students with the literacy needed to responsibly build AI applications that address future societal challenges. Having already reached 200,000 students globally, we are now scaling to reach 2 million learners by 2026, preparing the next generation of informed digital citizens.
This Fall, Pathify announced the Campus Experience Platform (CXP), a new class of higher education technology unifying every system, user and interaction across the digital campus. As the institution’s “central nervous system,” the CXP replaces siloed portals and front-end solutions with a single, personalized interface serving prospects, students, faculty, alumni, parents and staff. Built for the end user, Pathify’s CXP integrates hundreds of systems to simplify digital sprawl, strengthen belonging and deliver measurable ROI. With more than 250 institutions, from community colleges to R1 research universities, using its CXP, Pathify leads the transformation of higher education’s digital ecosystem worldwide.
Lumio is an interactive online learning platform trusted by over 1.3 million teachers worldwide. Powered by SMART Technologies' 35 years of education innovation, it brings together lesson delivery, collaboration, formative assessment, and personalised learning in one place so teachers can spend less time planning and more time with their students. From ready-made resources and AI-assisted lesson creation to real-time feedback and inclusive design, Lumio gives educators everything they need to engage every student on any device. Schools and districts choose Lumio because it simplifies the teaching experience without compromising depth, and delivers measurable impact on student engagement and outcomes.
The SMART Board® Mini is an interactive podium designed to bring active, collaborative learning to any space in a higher education institution, from lecture halls and breakout rooms to personal offices. Compact but fully featured, it gives faculty a single device for interactive presentations, hybrid teaching, and real-time collaboration, without the need for multiple tools or complicated setup. With a 4K AI-enabled camera, 8-microphone array, industry-leading digital inking, and the ability to mirror content to any external display, the SMART Board Mini removes the barriers between instructors and their students wherever learning happens. Recognised at ISE 2025 as Best of Show.
UNOWA is a global EdTech company specializing in inclusive education and STEM ecosystems. We bridge the gap between high-level clinical expertise and classroom practice through our AI-powered platforms, MIKKO and ULabs. With deep roots in Ukraine and a European headquarters in Poland, UNOWA has trained over 14,800 teachers and delivered 545 national-scale projects across Europe, Central Asia, and Africa. Our mission is to democratize quality education by providing scalable, functionally specific, and economically feasible (SAFE) solutions that empower every learner, regardless of their developmental challenges.
Explore the full shortlist
You can explore the full ETIH Innovation Awards 2026 shortlist to see the companies and platforms shaping this year’s awards. Winners will be announced on May 11.
